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40 months since my last "Mock-up"

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks & Talk' started by Doug Gibson, Nov 24, 2017.

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  1. #41 Doug Gibson, Nov 28, 2017

    That's too bad. Musicians can be obsessive. Particularly at the level you are talking about. It's so competitive it requires blocking out pretty much everything else. Conservatories can basically be prisons with Cellos. Tribalism too.


    I don't know if this will be of any use to anyone here, but I bring in players to my teaching studio all the time.
    There are plenty who do enjoy working with composers. This is a bassoon workshop. I have done a dozen of these for different
    combinations. (Voice, Cello, Clarinet, Trumpet, Piano etc.)





    Sigh....... I still have my string orchestration videos I need to finish. ;-/
     
    T.j. Prinssen and Alexander Schiborr like this.
  2. #42 Mike Worth, Nov 28, 2017
    Doug, thank you for your thoughtful replies, and for taking the time to go through my questions. I appreciate it!

    This is very useful information; especially the timeline; understanding that an arc probably takes about 3-5 years.... something I need to remember. And yes, I'm right outside of Philadelphia (Little Suburb 15 min West).

    Also, good news to know that other composers "diversify their income portfolio" as well... it actually makes me happy to have a break from one income stream, and work on another.

    And... I have seen (and experienced) that monk's... ahem.... life choices. :) Little show I worked on called the Wonderpets (Little Airplane Productions)... up in NYC, way back when at the beginning of my career. Just the memory of it brings me chills....

    Again, thank you!

    Mike
     
  3. #43 Doug Gibson, Nov 28, 2017
    Hmmm, I don't think I mentioned 3. Strike out the 3. 5 years would be min. More like 5-7 IMO

    Hey, offline I'll have to connect you with a friend of mine who runs a jazz performance series in Philly called Exuberance.
    He is opening up a performing space in the near future. Philly is a great jazz town.


    Ahh..... that explains the drinking in your videos. That sucks. You must know D.D Jackson then.
    I was in MPA for 1 year, and that show was passed around like a leaper it seemed.

    On my first recording session for a jingle I hired DD as a piano player. You know it's funny how things work out.
    ON that same crappy jingle - which I won't ever share - the drummer was playing with Winton Marsalis that evening.
    The Bass player Michael Thurber, who was a 2nd (or 3rd) choice, and a really nice kid went onto youtube fame doing this kind of stuff:
    But the time he was just getting out of Juilliard and was happy for any gig.



    My first year landing in NYC 3 things happened:

    1) I landed an internship at Heavy-Melody: A true odd couple ! I spent three months with Dave, Neil, and Ari as I was interested to know more about how sampling was done at a high level, and also the video game world. (Heavy-Melody is the company name for Heavyocity - Damage etc.) After three months..... I knew it was not a road for me to travel down.
    2) Joined MPA: Joe Carroll is a "funny" dude. I can be brief here and say 1 year was enough. I made really good contacts however.
    I did all my favorite recording sessions at Soundtrack studio, whom I never would have gotten in with if not for MPA.
    3) I landed a job at the NY Philharmonic in the archive department. They were looking to create a digital archive of their score library
    and I was the score proof reader.

    You might also know Nate Shaw: at the end of that year, or start of year two he hired me to teach out in Brooklyn.

    Basically the first year in a new city, trying to make a living at music you just try and survive and make rent etc.
    The best time to look for another job is when you already have one. As I was teaching in Brooklyn ( I hate Brooklyn. Portland for New Yorkers)
    I began building up my own private teaching practice and once I had enough students -- I think it was 8 or 10 private students a week -- I left
    BMF, and really it's has been a journey of 2 steps forward/ 1 step back. However as it is now 9 years since that internship at Heavy Melody
    I can say I am really happy with where I am career wise, and it's been 40 months since I have had to spend a serious amount of time playing with samples !! :)

    Just to bring it back to the topic.
     
  4. #44 Mike Worth, Nov 29, 2017
    Roger, I added 3 because I'm an optimist. Should have known better.

    Thank you for the connection. Sure, I'd love to learn more about that space. As you said, Philly is a great jazz town. I'm a jazz keyboardist by trade, and I teach at UArts (Jazz composition and film scoring), so I'm definitely up for meeting more people in that space. Thank you!


    Good lord, Doug, we totally ran in the same crowd. I was in MPA for 3 years, somewhere around 2008 to 2011. Joe Carroll, Wade, all those cats. At the time, I set up a film transcription/analysis get together. We did To Kill a Mockingbird, and Spirited Away. Some great composers there. As you said, Joe was "interesting"....


    And yep, I'm friends with DD, great guy, great composer. Nate Shaw was the guy that got me the Wonderpets gig... I lasted 7 months there, I think Nate lasted 9. Was an absolute clusterfuck shitshow. I was an accidental scab during union negotiations... very bad time.

    Yep, I know the Heavyocity/Heavy Melody guys. Kept running into them at GDC. Damn, NYC is a small world for musicians. Never realized that. And I like your strategy of getting enough steady work to allow you to then grow more work/look for new jobs. I didn't realize you had built up income through teaching, first, and then used that as a baseline to grow your business. Makes perfect sense.

    Thank you again for your experiences and advice, I appreciate it. I didn't realize you had seen some Farkle Fridays, I hope you found them enjoyable. Or at least, entertaining. :)

    Lots of food for thought here. Again, thank you!

    Mike
     
  5. #45 Doug Gibson, Nov 29, 2017
    Ahh.... one of my favorite endings to a film



    Well, it was 1/2 "strategy". I still teach private one on one lessons. Only composition. I have 8-10 students/week right now. Teaching online means I have a few early mornings as I have a student in Japan, two in Europe etc. I really enjoy it. It's probably why I post so much shit here. It's ideal for me. Plus when I get an avalanche of work my students all understand about rescheduling.

    Anytime


    I skimmed the one that was mentioned in another thread here a few days ago. I must confess I only saw about 10 minutes in total, enough to get the gist of it.

    I was actually thinking of asking you, in the least dick-head way possible, why you use media player for transcribing ?

    You know in Sibelius you can create another stave and have the mp3 play along with the Sibelius file. This way you can mute/un-mute the two
    or listen to the mp3 and your transcription at the same time. I can post a video example if you like.

    Doug
     
    Paul T McGraw likes this.
  6. #46 Mike Worth, Nov 29, 2017
    @Doug Gibson , Whoa, NO, I did not know about that functionality in Sibelius! Thank you for that information! That's huge, absolutely huge for me. Nope, had no idea you could do that. :p

    Let me try to figure it out via Sibelius docs and youtube, but if I can't, I'll hit you up for a video example; I don't want to suck up your time.

    Currently, I'm finishing EIS, and I have a couple of private EIS students lined up... like you, I like the private one-on-one teaching... it's energizing for me. Good to know you didn't "limit" yourself to NYC... the interweb makes all things available. Thank you again for all your answers, and for the information about the Sibelius transcription/mp3 stave! :)

    Come to think of it, if you *do* have time, and can post a quick vid, that would be helpful, not just for me, but for many of the redbanned peops, I know that people on this forum transcribe... so that could be really helpful. Have a great weekend, Doug!

    Mike
     
  7. #47 Doug Gibson, Nov 30, 2017
    Yes, video is done.

    @MWorth

    I'll put it over in the transcription practice thread.
     
  8. #48 Mike Worth, Nov 30, 2017
    Thank you, Doug!
     
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